The extreme bias of the New York Times in 2016 toward Hillary Clinton clearly cost her the election and many Democrats are wary that it will do the same to Kamala Harris. But they need to understand why the Times has such outsized influence on American politics.
It's not because ordinary people read the Times; they don't. But every person in the country who belongs to the elite, by any definition of the term, does read it. This is especially so for the media. All reporters and editors everywhere read it and take their cues from it.
It's similar to the bias toward hiring people with Ivy League credentials--no one in HR ever got fired because they hired someone with an Ivy League degree, no matter how incompetent. Same with the Times. No reporter parroting the Times line on a news event ever suffered for it.
This is the secret to the Times' power--its coverage has a ripple effect throughout the media, which has gotten stronger as lesser media have been forced by economic necessity to cut back on their own reportage. They are forced to rely on the Times for coverage of many things.
The real power of the Times on other media is establishing priorities--what is news and what isn't. The Times clearly has the power to make nothingburgers, such as Hillary's emails, into those that all media must cover. It can also bury stories, as it has often done for Trump.
Its comprehensiveness is its defense. If one asks why a certain story wasn't covered, it can always find an article or op-ed where is was covered--once and only once, and henceforth buried. Implicitly, the Times acts as if every article it's ever published was read by everyone.
The Times' constant repetition of certain stories or lack of such coverage on others constitutes bias. But it's hard to find bias in any individual story. It's the sheer repetition of stories that should have been dropped that constitutes the bias.
There is a certain Times' methodology that also constitutes de facto bias. That is the widely criticized policy of implying that both sides are equally guilty of some action or intellectual wrongdoing.
Quite often, one side's minor misdemeanor is equated with the other side's first-degree murder, as if all lawbreaking is equally wrong. The law itself doesn't say so and the Times shouldn't either. Unfortunately, the bothsidesism disease has spread throughout the media.
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Trump's obvious mental impairment is the biggest unreported story in America. Every time he speaks, nothing but gibberish comes out. But in stories about his speeches, the quotes are always cleaned up to make them sound half-sane.
This is one way the media puts its collective thumb on the scale in Trump's favor. Personally, I think he has dementia; I say this having seen it close-up. But I am willing to be persuaded that he is just incredibly stupid. What other option is there?
Every reporter in America, including at the lickspittle right-wing press, know Trump is and always has been a moron and that his mental acuity has sharply declined in recent months. To them, Trump's derangement is old news, already known by every American. So what's to report?
I think a key reason why Democrats have a hard time reaching out to Trump supporters is because they simply can't conceive of why anyone would support an obviously corrupt, incompetent moron. I freely admit that I don't understand it either. I wish I did.
I honestly try to put myself in their shoes. After all, I was a Republican for 30+ years. There are many people I used to be friends with who are still Republicans. Aside from those who make their livings as professional Republicans, I don't understand any of them. But I do try.
Their continued support for the stupidest, most corrupt president in history--widely considered by historians to be the worst by a large margin--continually amazes me. It seems to be some sort of auto-pilot they can't turn off. I would sincerely like to understand why.
The idea that the New York Times is now a conservative paper isn't quite right. I think there was a time, not so long ago, when it clearly tilted left. But at some point it moved rightward to the center, which is where it is. But the Overton Window has also moved to the right.
The rightward movement of the Overton Window has affected all media. It was brought about by a huge investment by right-wing billionaires in explicitly right-wing media. The "reporters" for such media are right-wing activists first, journalists second.
Right-wing politicians all believe that the mainstream media--those that adhere to standard journalistic ethics and norms--are biased against them because they are guided by truth. Therefore, right-wing politicians will only talk to right-wing media.
I think one of Biden's problems is that he has never had a story to tell that links his policies together. Every GOP initiative is tied to all the others in that big government is always the enemy, especially of the little guy, and Republicans want to lift it off his back.
It would be easy enough to turn this story around, show that big business and corrupt rich people are the real enemies of the little guy, and only government has the power to help. But Democrats haven't made this argument since LBJ.
Implicitly, Democrats concede the underlying truth of the Republican philosophy, and vainly try to work around it. For example, by using tax credits rather than spending programs to implement welfare and health initiatives, thus allowing them to support "tax cuts."
Yesterday I asserted that the New York Times has moved to the right over the last 25 years. Some people took issue with this claim, others attribute it simply to corporate greed. The true reason is more complex and I will try to explain part of the reason.
Back in the 1970s, I was a conservative and the bulk of the media was liberal, both editorially and in its news coverage. It was very hard to get a reporter to cover conservative initiatives, but in those days it was essential if you wanted your proposals to get publicity.
An old timer advised me to concentrate on the New York Times, because it took the lead; most reporters read it every day and got their ideas and basic facts from it. So a good story in the Times would have a ripple effect throughout the media.
Once you accept one crazy conspiracy theory, it is much easier to accept the next one and the next after that. And the more conspiracies you accept, the more alienated you become from those who don't share your beliefs. Eventually, everything is a conspiracy.
I think some people react to the widespread acceptance of ridiculous conspiracy theories by Trump supporters and a few on the left (RFK Jr) by denying that there are ever any true conspiracies. But there are! Sometimes in plain sight. I will post a few below. Post others.
There was a conspiracy--in plain sight--by various newspaper chains, esp Hearst and Pulitzer, to start the Spanish-American War. It was the age of imperialism and they wanted the US to participate. The war created an excuse to seize Spain's colonies. history.state.gov/milestones/186…